R. Mansfield's Profile

Website:http://thislamp.com

Last Visit:Apr 28, 2011

Total Comments:11

Total Forum Posts:3

Latest comments made by: R. Mansfield

I switched from Windows to the Mac in 1998, and VirtualPC was one of the main reasons I felt safe in making the "switch." VirtualPC meant that I didn't have to buy all new software all at once. Microsoft Access was mentioned above, and that was a program I ran for a while in VirtualPC until I finally switched to FileMaker. That was kind of my last Windows app holdout because while I didn't have a ton of databases, they all had to be manually converted, including rebuilding interfaces in FileMaker. There's still no Microsoft Access for the Mac today, and it makes one wonder if that's not a conspiracy to keep some folks in Windows.
VirtualPC was not very fast, but it worked. The last version of VirtualPC before moving to OS X (I think it was the early version 5 maybe) finally attained decent speeds in OS 9. It was definitely usable. But after it was carbonized for OS X, it became slow again because OS X itself was slower in those early days until hardware could catch up.
I used the same Windows installation created in VirtualPC for about 10 years. I upgraded it to Windows 2000 then XP, and then when Intel processors meant the death of VirtualPC, I used Parallels to convert my VirtualPC data and I upgraded to Vista. Since I no longer have anything mission critical in Windows these days, I no longer even use VirtualPC. I have Windows 7 installed in Bootcamp, but I might boot into it every few weeks or so. I really don't have much of a need anymore.
Regardless, VirtualPC was a lifesaver for us back in its day.

I've been using it a little bit over a week. So far, so good. I like it better than the Mighty Mouse I was using. I find myself getting used to features of the trackpad on my MacBook Pro that I can't replicate with a mouse. Yes, I guess I could get a new Magic Mouse, but I haen't been as impressed by those. I believe the Magic Trackpad is a better solution.
On my MBP, I don't enable Tap to Click because when I've tried in the past, I accidentally bump the trackpad too often. However, I think after finding my hand getting a bit tired of a lot of intensive pressing down on the trackpad, it's probably safe to turn on Tap to Click on the Magic Trackpad. Since I'm not typing over it, I doubt I'll have as many accidental taps.

Amelio often gets a bum rap, but as you state, he inherited an Apple that was quite the mess. Obviously, he didn't have the kind of leadership and vision that Steve Jobs has, but he stood in the gap in a very difficult time.
It's worth reading Amelio's book about his experience, On the Firing Line (you can find a used copy very cheap, but it's no longer in print). He describes the decision to find a replacement for the next (no pun intended) Mac OS. Contenders were NeXT, BeOS, and WindowsNT.
Bill Gates was really pushing Amelio to adopt WinBT with a Mac OS shell. If that had happened, the Mac would have inherited all the viruses, malware and security holes that Windows has. Not only that, but Apple would have been dependent upon Microsoft for updates and security fixes. Can you imagine?
I really think that if Amelio had picked WindowsNT, we would have Macs today and Apple would no longer be in business.
But Ameilio had enough sense and vision to pick the right company by choosing NeXTSTEP. I can guess that BeOS would have been a good second choice, but Gasse would have been a handful for Apple to put up with.

@Chris, it's too early to know if Facetime is revolutionary, but by comparing the functionality to a food you don't like, you're simply selling it way too short. Your comparison applies mostly to you because you don't like peas (or iChat AV. Good hyperbole connects with a general audience. Your comparison does not.
Call it whatever you want, but Apple is releasing the first mainstream phone that features video calling, even if done by wifi initially, I believe that fact cannot be so easily snubbed. AT&T;promised this functionality four and a half decades ago. If not for Apple, that promise would still be unfulfilled.

First of all, a lot more people use iChat AV than you might imagine. I'm certainly it's not a majority of users, but it's very helpful in certain situations. I live 13 hours from my parents so we use it regularly. I know a number of folks who have family members out of the country who use either iChat AV or Skype to see each other when they talk at least once a week.
Really, I think the whole peas analogy is a bad one. Sushi might be a better example. Not everyone eats sushi, but those who do think it's great.
Moreover, akin to selling refrigerators to eskimos as the old saying goes, Apple has just announced the first phone that deaf people might actually buy. A video camera will change things for a lot of people.
Again not everyone's going to use it. Maybe you won't use this feature. But it's a wonder feature for those who want it and need it.
It's certainly better than a can of peas.

One correction...although you are right that Apple did, in fact, lead the way with CD-ROM drives, they were very late to the game to include burnable drives, And Steve Jobs admitted as much. Most of the major PC makers were including drives that burned CDs before Apple did. A very rare blunder in Apple's history of innovation, to be sure.

Yes, Filemaker is owned by Apple. If you go to the company information page on their website, http://www.filemaker.com/company/index.html, you will find the statement, "Ownership: FileMaker, Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of Apple Computer, Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL)."
So, again, Apple could add Numbers to iWork for a spreadsheet, include FileMaker for a for a "professional edition" and they have a full fledged suite that would finally take the place of Appleworks and compete on some level with MS Office.
That might be a viable option because one thing to remember is that MS has never ported their database Access to the Mac. There used to be a Mac version of FoxPro, but MS killed it.

A couple of points...
You say that the public was not privy to the resons behind the decision to adopt NeXT over BeOS, but that's not entirely true. In Gil Amelio's book, he gives quite a bit of detail behind the decision. What is really interesting is that unknown to most at the time, there was a third contender for a new Mac OS: WindowsNT. Evidently, Amelio was in talks with Gates up to the last minute to create a version of NT that was Mac-like in its interface, but was nothing but Windows under the hood.
On paper, the plan almost made sense in that NT was already ported to the PowerPC in the early days, and it wouldn't have been too much work to port programs from Windows to the Mac if the same architecture was running underneath.
Gates was very enthusiastice about this, according to Amelio, as you might well imagine and was furious over the decision to go with Jobs and NeXT.
However, had Amelio done this I don't think there would be an Apple today. The MacOS would have become nothing more than a shell on top of Windows such as HP's NewWave before it. And Mac users would have all the same problems that Windows users have.
Who knows what it would have been like if BeOS has been purchased?
On another note, if iWork is going to replace AppleWorks, the drawing and painting programs could just be embedded apps acccessible from within Pages and Keynote, similar to the way you have some minor editing tools in iPhoto today. As for a database, Apple already has one: FileMaker Pro.
I could foresee an "iWork Standard" containing Pages, Numbers, and Keynote and an "iWork professional" that includes FileMaker along with the other apps. Therefore, the whole suite is really there once Numbers is introduced.

I know I'm going to be odd-man out here, but I wish Microsoft had not discontinued IE or that they would begin to develop it again. I can't check my work email on Safari or Firefox because it runs on MS Exchange Server. And I still occasionally hit a site that won't work on anything but IE. But IE 5 for the Mac is going to be showing its age before too long and some sites are just going to be off limits for Mac users.